diff --git a/man/hbal.rst b/man/hbal.rst
index 510d1e5a5f6e47c927f450550cc3e88bf7f4e721..2352d6b50f318c6b4678398a2524bd47844f0e23 100644
--- a/man/hbal.rst
+++ b/man/hbal.rst
@@ -464,14 +464,6 @@ The exit status of the command will be zero, unless for some reason
 the algorithm fatally failed (e.g. wrong node or instance data), or
 (in case of job execution) any job has failed.
 
-ENVIRONMENT
------------
-
-If the variables **HTOOLS_NODES** and **HTOOLS_INSTANCES** are present
-in the environment, they will override the default names for the nodes
-and instances files. These will have of course no effect when the RAPI
-or Luxi backends are used.
-
 BUGS
 ----
 
diff --git a/man/hspace.rst b/man/hspace.rst
index c2bb2978416daef5d838f34697763a0de0e82906..ec7a8eb8dd73ee15979d45fcc41d3539647fb661 100644
--- a/man/hspace.rst
+++ b/man/hspace.rst
@@ -402,14 +402,6 @@ The algorithm doesn't rebalance the cluster or try to get the optimal
 fit; it just allocates in the best place for the current step, without
 taking into consideration the impact on future placements.
 
-ENVIRONMENT
------------
-
-If the variables **HTOOLS_NODES** and **HTOOLS_INSTANCES** are present
-in the environment, they will override the default names for the nodes
-and instances files. These will have of course no effect when the RAPI
-or Luxi backends are used.
-
 SEE ALSO
 --------